CONSERVATIVE Leader Kemi Badenoch visited Monmouth last Friday and heard for herself some of the accounts of the flooding misery brought to town by Storm Claudia.

She chatted to one resident of Monnow Street Lottie Bence, who was rescued by canoe from her upstairs flat at the rear of Majestic Wines.

“I used to complain about the steps leading to my flat” she told the Beacon, “but I was grateful for them when the floods swept through the town.”

Kemi Badenoch then went upstairs to listen to local business people, including the owners of Bar 125 and Gillian Haycock from Chippenham Court about the harrowing devastation left in the wake of Storm Claudia.